Tires...

Thankfully NOT on the bus...

3rd tire puncture on the Jeep in 2016 - we experienced nail in a tire (the same tire) twice in April/May here in the DFW area. Now a screw in the sidewall - not repairable, so we need to get the tire replaced. ARGH!

Spare tire on the driver side rear

Saga of the Jeep tires:
September, 2014: Bought Jeep.
January, 2015: Had a slow leak in Tucson - took to a repair place and they tried to patch, but it had lost air by the time we drove to our next campground (towing the Jeep). CoachNet sent a flatbed wrecker and we got two new tires at Discount Tire in Buckeye, AZ. The "better" of the two (that didn't have the nail in it) was placed on a wheel for the spare. The "new" tires were put onto the back wheels as recommended by the tire place.
April/May, 2016: One of rear tires got a nail in it, twice, and was repaired while we were in Lewisville driving on the heavily-under-construction interstate (I-35E).
June, 2016: Jimmy noticed that the front tires were pretty worn so we decided to put 2 new tires on the Jeep. We bought from Sam's Club as they had a good price for the same tires we had gotten in Arizona. We got them installed by Sam's Club and that included free lifetime rotation and damage repair (for those two tires). They were again put onto the rear wheels as recommended by the tire installer. Reference: "Virginia tires"
September, 2016: We noticed in Canada that the front tires were very worn (the ones purchased in Arizona) - they were supposed to be 60K mile tires and they had gone about 35K driving + towing, but we decided to get the replacement pair of tires at Sam's Club again so we would have the same service plan on all tires. Discount Tire's furthest east location was in Ohio and we decided we didn't want to try to deal with warranty replacement on the tires (figuring that we had either not rotated them frequently enough or towing or something that would have voided the warranty) - and Sam's Club would not take up the warranty replacement (they are a discount installer, not a dealer for the tire manufacturer). Reference: "New York tires"
Jimmy suggested that the fact that we tow the Jeep may put more wear on the front tires than is normal for driving a vehicle - that it scuffs a lot when we turn and it is following the motorhome. We decided that we would try to rotate the tires a bit more frequently than may be recommended and try to get the newer tires onto the front sooner rather than later.
When I called Sam's Club to see if they would do an alignment (they didn't), I asked about the tire rotation. The service person I talked with asked me if the tires had been on 6K miles - the odometer on the Jeep would definitely not show 6K miles, and the driving+towing would not yet be 6K. We were trying to keep closer track of the miles on the tires, and whether they were on the front or the back.
October 19, 2016 (Wednesday): One of the front tires (Virginia tires) started losing air. The automotive shop put air in when he did the alignment and suggested we keep an eye on it. It was low again by Thursday evening and we aired it up.
Today, October 21 (Friday): The tire was low again Friday morning. Dwayne took the Jeep back to the automotive shop to get the tie rod end replaced (it was discovered as being bent when they did the alignment). He then took it to Sam's Club to have them check the tire.

The Tire Service department at Sam's found that there was a screw in the side wall of the tire (not repairable) so they need to order a new tire (this particular tire we need for replacement was not in stock). We are thankful to have a full-size spare (not a donut - see January, 2015!) which we can use until they get the replacement tire in. They also rotated the tires so the New York tires are on the front and one of the Virginia tires and the spare are on the back. The new tire will be in either tomorrow (Saturday) or next week. I guess the new ("Texas") tire will end up on the back.

Because we had twice had the tires get to a very worn state before noticing that they needed attention, I had set up a spreadsheet so I could track the mileage on each pair of tires, driving + towing; I need to keep track of both the Jeep mileage and the bus mileage. For simplicity, I am counting every mile that the bus drives as a "towing" mile, even though there are some times when we drive the vehicles separately; I am choosing to ignore that as, percentage-wise, it is small. Now I'll have 3 different tire ages ("Virginia", "New York", and "Texas"). Separately, Dwayne is doing measurements on the tread depth so we keep a better eye on that. I think this is getting more complicated that I am capable of handling!!!